Adventures in the Culinary Domain

Cooking is great fun. More so if you are the 'experimenting' type. One late afternoon, my wife had taken the kids out to the market. The hot weather suddenly gave way to cool winds and the rain came lashing. The view from our balcony was beautiful. Sheets of rain being blown away by the wind. The poplar trees, in front of our house, swinging wildly enjoying themselves.
Spoke to the kids. They were likely to get delayed.
Ah, what an opportunity to impress them, again, with my sense of culinary adventure. Checked the refrigerator. Chicken breast pieces available. Other ingredients like onion,tomato and ginger-garlic not available. Scanned the cupboard for possible ingredients. Found mango and chilli pickle. Vodka available in the bar. The dish started cooking in my mind. Drunk Achari Chicken.
Ingredients
4 chicken breast pieces
4 tbsp mango and chilli pickle
Ginger paste
2 lemon
120ml vodka
1tbsp oil.
Zeera, rye, pepper etc
Oregano and red pepper
Salt to taste
Process
Mash the mango and chilli pickle together in a dish ensuring that the hard mango core is separated. Mix with 3 tbsp of ginger paste. This is the marinade.
Wash chicken pieces properly and rub the marinade on to both surfaces. Put the pieces in a hollow dish. Add vodka. Squeeze the lemon pieces and add salt to taste.
Leave aside for 90 minutes.
While the chicken is being marinated, pour yourself a large vodka in a glass. Add a dash of lemon, salt, a slice of green chilli, black pepper flakes. Pour chilled soda and 4 cubes of ice. Top it up with whatever is a available, a sprig of coriander or mint. Drink it leisurely while reading a book.

Repeat the process outlined in the above paragraph twicw, oops.. you can go slow and do it just once also. Wait for the rain to subside.
The chicken is marinated by now and ready to be cooked.
Heat oil in a pan. Add jeera and rye. Fry till red. Add chicken pieces. Let it simmer.

The kids call up. It has stopped raining. They are on their way back. Ask them to get onion.
Keep adding water to ensure that the masala does not stick to the bottom. Turn the pieces at regular intervals to ensure consistent cooking. Let the chicken cook in its own juice. Keep sipping vodka regularly to ensure that your drool does not fall into the dish while stirring.
The bell rings. Kids are back. Pour a large drink before opening the door. You have to make it appear that you have just made a drink. Do that, but the wife has a way of knowing the count.
The aroma wafts out from the kitchen. The elder kids sniffs and says,"Dad you are cooking achari chicken." I wonder how did she know. What the hell!! She should know. She is doing hotel management and watches all the TV programmes on travel & cooking.
The chicken is nearly cooked. Add oregano and red chilli flakes. Let it simmer for another fifteen minutes.
Since onion is now available, fry some diced onion.Serve the chicken on a bed of fried diced onion. Garnish with the leftover coriander/mint leaves. Serve with toasted bread.
Ask your wife to call up your sister to talk about this dish. Call up your M-i-L to tell her how caring you are.
Ensure that the kids also convey your culinary accomplishment to whoever cares to listen...